Thank you Diana for being with us, and thank you for your time and for the space. Please share with us for our followers and friends on social media, who is Diana Rico?
– Of course Roy, for those who don‘t know me, my name is Diana Rico Rodríguez. This year I celebrated 22 years in this fascinating motor industry. I studied Business Administration at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla, graduated in 2002 and joined one of the best companies in the automotive market, Federal Mogul. There I started as a planner and it helped me a lot, because I learned about purchasing, logistics, inventories; But my passion has always been marketing, so they gave me the opportunity to lead the motor lines. There I began my career in marketing and the commercial part, which are my passion. I spent 12 years at Federal Mogul and today I have been with First Brands Group for 10 years.
Thank you Diana. As topic 2, explain to us, what is First Brands Group?
– Of course, as you know, First Brands Group is an American firm, which has recently acquired many high–quality brands and leaders in their segments. In Mexico, it markets the brands FRAM, Autolite, Trico, Carter, ANCO, American Brakeblock, Strongarm, Raybestos, Reese, Hopkins, Luberfiner and Airtex, 12 brands of great quality and prestige. The acquisition of brands in various markets began with Trico, which are windshield wipers; then FRAM, which are filters; then the Autolite spark plugs; then all the gasoline pumps and Carter water pumps (formerly Airtex/ASC), and to consolidate what we already had in the windshield wiper part, all the plants and the recognized brand ANCO were purchased. Then the Raybestos hydraulic brake part was acquired 2 years ago. In the heavy equipment part to American Brakeblock; then to the Strongarm fifth–door shock absorbers; and later to Hopkins, which sells all the cleaning part for the car; also the Luberfiner brand of filters for heavy equipment, and the Reese brand was finished, which is all the towing part for vehicles.
So, First Brands Group is a very large and very strong company, with a great global presence.
In which countries does First Brands Group have a presence?
Of course. We really have a global presence, with plants in China, Europe, the United States and Mexico. Here we have one of the windshield wiper plants in Matamoros. Another water pump plant in Puebla, which used to be Talleres Mecánicos Montserrat; and another plant for brakes in Los Reyes La Paz. So we do have a strong presence worldwide and also in Mexico.
With all these brands and thousands of products, what kind of segments do you cover?
“That‘s an interesting question. We have applications for light equipment and heavy equipment, and I think it is the ‘boom‘ in the market. Well, we are really working hard to achieve greater coverage for the vehicle fleet in Mexico, light, heavy, motorcycles, of the Chinese, European and American brands, for the vehicles that circulate the most in our country.
Perfect Diana. Also tell us for our followers, what are some of your main achievements as a marketer, as an expert and with more than 22 years in this industry?
Well, in reality one never stops learning. 20 years ago in this business there was talk of the “big fights” for coverage analysis, today those terms and brands have already been displaced. All distribution channels have changed tremendously. So the challenge is very interesting, we have to listen to the mechanic, the end user, the customers, in the different distribution channels; give them what they need and develop useful tools for them. We also have to help ourselves with Artificial Intelligence, and create these experiences for the end user. Quality is a very important concept for products, and that is why we seek to offer the best support and service from the maintenance and installation of the parts, and go further, developing concepts different from what comes from Original Equipment. What do I mean? To give you an example, the gas pump; it is a product in which we have a better development than the Original Team, from the sieve and others, and so also each of our products. So they are interesting challenges and we have to go to these market trends.
Thank you Diana. Share with us some of the product families you handle in Mexico.
–Pues tenemos toda la parte de lo que nosotros le llamamos mantenimiento-reparación. Ustedes ya conocen nuestras líneas filtros de aire y gasolina; bujías; lubricantes, bombas de agua, bombas de gasolina, limpiaparabrisas, frenos de disco, rotor y tambor; cremalleras Cardone; toda la parte de limpieza para el vehículo, en fin, realmente tenemos un muy amplio portafolio de productos, productos de gran calidad, y contamos con las mejores marcas en México.
It must be a challenge to be able to distribute all these brands and products throughout the country.
–Well, we really rely on the large spare parts distributors in Mexico; And also, one of the main challenges that the company has is to diversify through e–commerce sales.
And although well, in reality we do not sell as such online, but we rely on distributors who are experts in these channels.
What is the oldest brand in our country of all the Group‘s brands?
FRAM has been in the market for more than 90 years; Autolite and Carter are also well–known brands with many years of history in the market.
It must be a great challenge to have a place to store all these products.
That is a very good question. As of today, we no longer have enough space to support all the products of the acquired brands. We have 3 distribution centers, but we are working on a very interesting project so that next year, in the first quarter, we will have a much larger Distribution Center, where we can even bring some lines that the company currently has, but that customers have to import directly from the United States. So this will be a challenge and a very interesting project for next year, to have more inventory of the Hopkins and Luberfiner brands.
Diana, what do you do to win the loyalty of the end consumer?
–There are many strategies. It is very important to develop technical information, because in Mexico the mechanic needs to take posters with technical information, a printed catalog, and in the digital part it is also important to understand that many of the mechanics are young, millennials, and that is why we are developing videos on YouTube with our motto of “do it yourself”. We have a mobile application: “FRAM Autolite Tuning”, where you can download the catalogs and technical information of each of our brands. We also have loyalty programs, where these mechanics can combine their packaging so that they can be exchanged for different promotions. This is with all brands.
Does this program have an expiration date?
Diana Rico: No. It is a program that we have permanent, which is managed by all the promoter force that we have, and we also have the program “Enchula tu refaccionaria”, in which we paint the facade of the mechanical workshops and others, to also brand all our brands.
Very good! We are finishing Diana, but I would like to ask you, do you handle products for hybrid
vehicles?
Yes of course. Remember that the hybrid car is a gasoline engine and an electric motor, so of course we offer coverage for the gasoline engine with filters, spark plugs, brakes, lubricants. If we are working on that and we also have coverage.
Tell us a message that you want to send to that end consumer, not only the automotive technician and the distributor, but also to the user, the motorist who uses your products and that they are of the best quality. –
–I want to thank you for the loyalty and trust towards each of our brands and each of our products. We are not going to let you down. We are going to continue working on innovation and continuing to develop valuable information for all of you. Thank you so much.
Remind us of your social networks, please.
–In the “Fram Autolite Tuning” application, there is information about all our brands and also follow us on our YouTube channel
Well, thank you to all of you friends and followers on Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Linkedin, WhatsApp and Instagram, and also don‘t forget to follow First Brands Group and all the Group‘s brands, which are high–quality brands in our country. Thank you and God bless you. Until next time.
